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City Won’t Give ‘Occupy Charlotte’ Protesters Porta-Potties

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Demonstrators with "Occupy Charlotte" said Charlotte needs to provide them a place to use the restroom. (credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

Demonstrators with “Occupy Charlotte” said Charlotte needs to provide them a place to use the restroom. (credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CBS Charlotte) – “Occupy Charlotte” protesters have nothing to occupy when they need to go to the bathroom.

A Charlotte city ordinance doesn’t allow anyone to erect semi-permanent structures, which include portable toilets.

For over two weeks, a group of approximately 25 people have camped out on the Old City Hall lawn. During the day, they can use public facilities or local businesses, but it’s more difficult to find a legal place late at night.

“Late nights have been kind of rough,” protester John Wrenn told WBTV. “You just try to make sure to go before the transit (center) closes.”

The movement’s website is calling on city manager Curt Walton to place portable facilities onsite, but Charlotte Police Central Command Capt. J.W. Estes isn’t budging.

“There are no plans to permit porta-potty’s to be put in place at the public forum space currently being used by the ‘Occupy Charlotte’ group. The city does not provide porta-potty’s to any protest groups,” he told CBS Charlotte.

If protesters wish, Estes said they could place portable facilities on nearby private property.

Local businessman Gaspare Marturano said both groups should try harder to figure something out. He tweeted that regardless of whose side the public is on, Mayor Anthony Fox should recognize the “basic human right” of a safe place to use.

He drove his interested nephew down to the protests a week ago and said he can see the issue from both sides.

“The city should respect that they’re citizens working within the rules. They’re good kids,” he told CBS Charlotte. “The city should send someone down to help protesters figure something out.”

According to a memo from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe to members of city government, protesters were informed of all ordinances applicable to overnight occupation on public property including signage, littering and sanitation.

The memo adds protesters are cooperating with police, have complied to orders and were respectful of others’ property.

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  • MakeemStop

    Like that matters. The “occupy” trash/low life’s will sh t on their own parents.

    • watermelisha

      So when the cold weather comes, they’ll just have to clean up all the $hit these protesters leave behind. These people are like dogs, they just go when they have to go.

    • shoppegirl

      They lost all respect from me (as if they had any) when I saw the pics of them defacating on the police car and THE AMERICAN FLAG.

  • TxSon

    They have a basic human right to go the heck home and use their own toilet.

    • BigRed

      You are absolutely correct! No one is denying the privilege of going home and taking care of business. Their suffering is their own choice and I fail to see why it is the city’s problem. I think the fault is in the organizers of this protest in sufficiently manage such logistics.

      • KENYAN OCCUPIER FLUSHES USA DOWN TOILET; MEDIA APPLAUD

  • nomercy55

    I WANT ONE OF THOSE MASK FOR HALLOWEEN…

  • NCMike

    I don’t want my tax dollars spent on toilets for anti-American subversives.

  • Gunny Highway

    …they have the right to be treated to a healthy dose of firehoses, tear gas and rubber bullets.

  • Rob

    The real problem with this country isn’t the OWS folks as seen here, it’s the people like “local businessman Gaspare Marturano” who think the city should do something because these “kids” have a basic right to a clean place to use as a toilet. They’ve got a place to go – it’s at HOME. The protesters are abiding by the law, the city is doing it’s part, people like Marturano need to either shut the hell up or offer their own solution, but don’t expect the tax payers of Charlotte to do it just because. THAT’S why our budget is so damned bloated, all these bleedin’ hearts who think it’s the Gov’ts job to “do something”. Idiots

  • Harry Houdini

    Why can’t that businessman open his business for them to use the toilet? Or, he can rent them facilities (portapotty)? Why should the taxpayer foot the bill?

  • blake99

    The problem here is that the city of Charlotte’s ordinance bans portable facilities on public property. Even if they are provided for privately. That means that even the Tea Party couldn’t have a demonstration over an extended time period. That said, if you’re going to have a demonstration there has to be some kind of time limit to it, at least in a single location.

    • Marshall Law

      Tea Party people don’t camp out and make a nuisance of themselves. They hold a rally, clean up, then go home.

      They have work the next day.

  • Bob

    Now what a minute. The people that can’t figure out the logistics of holding a protest are there because they know a better way to run a corporation?

  • Peter Kay

    I drive by these clowns every day and I really don’t see the point that they’re trying to make. A few times I’ve seen one or maybe two individuals holding up a sign, but for the most part they’re just camping out. Since they’re not in anybody’s way, it’s easy to forget that they’re even there. What kind of statement does this even make? How do they expect to affect change like this? If they really wanted to make a difference then they’d get involved in the political process. The way it is right now, they just come off as pathetic.

  • Donna

    Amazing how NO rules apply to the left. Can you think about how this would have been reported had the Tea Party protested with no permits, demanding from our cities what is not allowed to a regular citizen, with the expectation they are to be feed, sheltered, and now given toilets. Go home you fools and start contributing to society.

  • psi

    If any of these protesters had an ounce of sense, they would stop wasting time occupying everywhere BUT where they NEED to… Washington, D.C. where most of the legislation, regulation (and de-regulation in some cases) forced or allowed Wall Street and the Banks to do what they did in the first place.

    Trying to fix the banks without fixing Washington first is like wiping your rear end before you poop! (not my quote, but appropriate)

  • Jim in Houston

    Boy hen this is over they will REALLY be full of sh#t.

    • Jim in Houston

      No edit function – when, not hen.

  • Bo Jiden

    Wow! 25 people! There’s a persuasive crowd. That means they’re 99% of an average elementary school class.

  • JohnF

    They do have a save place to use .. their homes. If they don’t have a home, try the homeless shelters. Other than that, no one is obligated to provide them anything. I am so tired of the ‘mememememe’ attitude these protestors have. They don’t care if they are obstructing anyone else from using a park, as long as they get their right to assemble.

    A bunch of inconsiderate, self-absorbed, self-righteous whiners is all I see when I look at the pictures. They have no solutions, only complaints. Well gee whiz, sorry your life isn’t perfect. Get in line with the other 7 billion people in the world, you are nothing special.

  • CV

    25? You’re joking right? How is this news worthy?

  • shoppegirl

    Stay strong Charlotte. Do not allow porta johns. These folk all have their own bathrooms, let them go home and use them.
    Has Charlotte ever put up Porta Johns for the Homeless? No.

  • Mar65

    How to make some money in Charlotte, Put a Portapotty on your pickup, drive down to the occupee people, charge $10 per use. Make lots a money…

    • Mar65

      Don’t forget the coffee and exlax brownies

  • kimdi01

    Local businessman Gaspare Marturano said
    ” that regardless of whose side the public is on, Mayor Anthony Fox should recognize the “basic human right” of a safe place to use.”
    Answer: GO HOME!

  • emergentmind

    If the mayor is unwilling to provide basic human sanitation needs, then they should ignore him, and set up their own. The movement cannot be stopped by petty tyrants or incompetent bureaucrats. They are playing word games here. A car is a semi-permanent structure when it is parked. There’s nothing anymore permanent about portable toilets.

    • Bill

      Lol your a d_mb ass! WOW LOL

    • shoppegirl

      The Tea party didn’t need to be coddled. Grow up, Go home and use your own pot.

    • jimbo

      Who could possibly object to turning over our financial system to people who think like this?

      Time to go back to school! May I suggest Macroeconomics 101? Should be truly enlightening for someone as educated beyond your intelligence as you are.

      emergent mind…too funny. More like turtle head

  • Ross

    These OWS fools are against Wall Street, but they are for Obama (and Obama and the national leaders of the Democrat party have embraced these idiots as their own). But this president supported the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He bailed out the auto companies. He was the darling of Wall Street bundlers in 2008. And one exasperated Wall Street insider told Politico:

    “The president’s Treasury Secretary was in charge of the New York Fed (during the start of) the bailout. The president reappointed Ben Bernanke, a key architect of the bailout …The president’s White House national economic council director took almost a million dollars from Goldman Sachs before joining the administration … The president’s national security advisor is a former top Fannie Mae lobbyist, and both of his OMB chiefs have ties to big banks. Obama’s current chief of staff is from JP Morgan Chase, and his predecessor was on the board of Freddie Mac … If the president really wants to send Wall Street a message, why doesn’t he just convene a meeting of his senior staff?”

  • jimbo

    Why don’t they ask their Zuccoti Park counterparts to “share the wealth”? After all, the NYC crowd is snacking on Ben & Jerry’s and organic meals from soup kitchens. I can hear it now: B-b-b-but it’s not FAIR!

  • Kevin

    Solution is simple Gaspare Marturano can leave his business unlocked, or put portopots on his own property. Problem solved. I’m sure thiese fine upstanding OWS folks will treat his property with respect, and he will not mind “sharing”
    Yeah right.

  • Ross

    Portapottys are not cheap to rent. They have legal liabilities as well. And they must be serviced regularly for them to not become nuisances to the public due to smell. Why should the taxpayers of Charlotte pick up the tab?

  • JoeAStroturf

    Everybody should flock to NY’s Wall street protests. Soros is paying good money. Down there you get to see that ugly looking piece of flesh Michael Moore and his even uglier looking wife in a three way with the old bag lady Susan Sarandon show up again with a lot more of them closet queen democrats that really know about teabagging. When he looks in the mirror and at his disgusting looking wife that was thrown out by a donkey in Mexico because the donkey had more class than that he gets depressed. If your on an empty stomach google michael moore and wife if you haven’t eaten anything recently. I hate ObamaTakeAwayAvastinCare but if it prevents these 2 from procreating than it might not be that bad. Susan can stomach anything . True story here folks. Sarandon knows how to be vommed on with grace. The star, who parted ways with Tim Robbins had been seen around town with a ping-pong club proprietor some thirty years her junior, was spotted on Feb 2010 at a third anniversary party for The Box burlesque in NoHo. According to the Post Sarandon was seated in a precarious place near the stage when transsexual entertainer Rose Wood threw up directly on her. One witness said she was calm about it and even seemed to be enjoying herself: “She was laughing while a bunch of guys came over to towel her off,” said the partygoer.
    Check out song called “teapartiers I can’t hear you” on youtube

    Here’s a verse

    Doctors are retiring earlier but we’re getting 17000 new IRS
    This is how Obama creates health care jobs I guess
    For 234 years this country’s been God’s blessing.
    Now he’s following Cloward and Piven’s to bankrupt the country I’m guessing
    If Obamacare gives Grandma and Grandpa a scare
    Think how when their rationed and die earlier we’ll save on healthcare

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